Ken Tucker
Ken Tucker reviews rock, country, hip-hop and pop music for Fresh Air. He is a cultural critic who has been the editor-at-large at Entertainment Weekly, and a film critic for New York Magazine. His work has won two National Magazine Awards and two ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards. He has written book reviews for The New York Times Book Review and other publications.
Tucker is the author of Scarface Nation: The Ultimate Gangster Movie and Kissing Bill O'Reilly, Roasting Miss Piggy: 100 Things to Love and Hate About Television.
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The pop singer's smart and snappy second album is a '70s and '80s disco throwback. The record immediately stands out from nearly all current popular music for its sheer, bursting joyfulness.
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The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, who died April 7, took a journeyman's pride in unifying metaphor and metrical precision. Prine's eccentric music served him — and us — well for five decades.
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BTS' new record features songs that vary from grandly dramatic to impishly playful. The album's been a near-instant hit, selling over 2 million copies in its first two hours of release in South Korea.
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Singer-songwriter-guitarist Bethany Cosentino opens up about sobriety on a propulsive new album with musical partner Bobb Bruno. Almost Tomorrow is Best Coast's first record in five years.
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Best known as the lead singer for Roxy Music, Ferry released two solo albums in the '70s filled with covers. A marvelous new concert album features Ferry performing many of these songs live.
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The Tulsa, Okla.,-based singer-songwriter has a reputation for writing superb sad songs, but his new record shows a wider range of emotions, with novelistic details in the lyrics.
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Led by New Pornographers member Dan Bejar, the band takes inspiration from The Twilight Zoneand Edgar Allan Poe to evoke a distressed intensity on its new record.
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The Canadian singer-songwriter wrote, produced and performed all 11 songs on his new album, presenting himself as a lonely first-person narrator pining over an ex-girlfriend.
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The 23-year-old Southern blues rocker strikes out on his own with a soulful new album produced Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. The record is a real beauty — and a turning-point for King.
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Blessed with a Kentucky croon and a gift for storytelling, Childers offers a slice of country life on his recent album, with songs about marriage, life on the road and the school bus he took as a kid.